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A spokesman said: “Like most forces in England and Wales, we have seen a rise in reported shop thefts. This is something we work closely with retailers to address, giving crime prevention advice and training where required.

“We have regular community patrols in key areas where we know there are high incidents of shoplifting and have identified repeat offenders across the force area.

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“A number of factors can come together which have an impact on the amount of thefts from shops. These can range from people struggling to meet ends meet financially, benefit changes, through to changes in store policies to an individual needing to feed an addiction.

“Shoplifting is a high demand, high volume, yet low vulnerability crime. We will continue to work with our partners such as Hull BID and Hull City Council and with the existing shop watch and city centre schemes to tackle shop theft.”

Which force saw the biggest jump in shop thefts?

Humberside Police have vowed to tackle shoplifters in Hull

The survey was compiled after analysts at OnBuy.com investigated the number of shoplifting offences recorded by 42 forces and constabularies over a 12-month period.

Unsurprisingly, London’s Metropolitan Police Service saw the most number of offences with 46,840 shoplifting incidents in 2017 and 2018.

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However, encouragingly, this represented a two per cent change compared to the year prior.

The lowest number of incidents were recorded by Dyfed-Powys Police in Mid Wales but the force also saw the biggest leap in shoplifters with a 21 per cent jump in the number of offences recorded.

In total, 378,725 shoplifting incidents were reported to 42 police forces and constabularies in England and Wales, according to data obtained through data.police.uk. This represented a four per cent increase compared to the previous year.

This graph shows how Humberside Police compare to other forces across the country in terms of shoplifting offences

Cas Paton, managing director of OnBuy.com said: “The findings from this research are intriguing. With the overall number of shoplifting incidents increasing from the previous year, it’s a crime which is financially burdening retailers.

"It’s unfortunate because many owners spend a lot of time, money and energy ensuring all aspects of their operations are running effectively and efficiently.

"While shoplifting may seem difficult to prevent, there are certain cost-effective precautions retailers can take to deter shoplifters from targeting them.